384 Mr. J. T. Cunningham and Dr. C. A. MacMnnn. [Apr. 27. 



(Two shafts, one of pure gold, the other of emerald, which shone 

 remarkably at night.) 



Of a list of seven extra- solstitial temples which are named, five are 

 more particularly noticed, viz. : — 



A temple at Mycense and one near Thebes, which are built nearly 

 north and south, but which probably, as was the case at Bassaa, had 

 eastern doorways. The star, a Arietis, which suits the first, seems to 

 point out the dedication of this temple to Jupiter. The other is very 

 remarkable, and connects the Boeotian Thebes with the great 

 Egyptian city ; the star was 7 Draconis. Thebes was called the City 

 of the Dragon, and tradition records that Cadmus introduced both 

 Phoenician and Egyptian worship. Three of the temples lay more 

 nearly at an angle bisecting the cardinal points; these are Diana 

 Propylaea at Eleusis, a small temple (not yet named) lately discovered 

 at Athens, and the Temple of Yenns at Ancona, recovered by means 

 of the walls of a church built upon its traditional site. In these 

 temples the star observed at the first seems to have been Capella, 

 the time of the year when it shone axially at midnight agreeing with 

 that of the celebration of the Little Mysteries, and in the other two 

 the star was Arcturus. 



II. "On the Coloration of the Skins of Fishes, especially of 

 PleuronectidaB." By J. T. Cunningham, M.A. Oxon., 

 Naturalist on the Staff of the Marine Biological Associa- 

 tion, and Charles A. MacMunn, M.A., M.D. Communi- 

 cated by Professor E. Hat Lankester, F.R.S. Received 

 March 6, 1893. 



(Abstract.) 



In normal specimens of the majority of the Flat Fishes, i.e., of the 

 family Pleuronectidos, the upper side is pigmented, the lower side 

 opaque white, the colours and markings being characteristic of the 

 species. In symmetrical Fishes which swim vertically the dorsal 

 surface is pigmented, the ventral almost or entirely destitute of pig- 

 ment. Where the pigment is absent or in small quantity the charac- 

 teristic silvery brilliancy and iridescence of Fishes' skins is exhibited. 

 It has long been known that the pigment in the skins of Fishes and 

 Amphibia is contained in chromatophores provided with contractile 

 radiating processes, and that the iridescence and brilliant reflection of 

 light is due to special anatomical elements of fixed form, all these 

 elements being placed in the category of connective tissue cell?. 

 But exact and detailed descriptions of these coloration elements in 

 Fishes are not available. The most complete account of them is that 

 given by G. Pouchet in his memoir on the " Changement de Colora- 



